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Shawn Mendes
Shawn Mendes | Biography
Quick Facts:
- Birth name: Shawn Peter Raul Mendes
- Born: August 8, 1998
- Origin: Pickering, Ontario, Canada
About
Shawn Mendes is a Canadian pop singer and songwriter. After uploading a series of his cover versions to various video-sharing sites (beginning with the now-defunct application Vine in 2012), Mendes earned a dedicated following that he cultivated through social media outlets. His talent, teen-idol good looks and built-in fan base quickly landed him a record deal. In 2014 his debut single, “Life of the Party”, charted at No. 24 on the Billboard 100, making the then 15-year-old Mendes the youngest artist to have a debut song within the Top 25.
YouTube Showed Him How
Not only was Mendes discovered by posting his performances on the Internet, but he also taught himself to play guitar via YouTube. In an interview with The Telegraph he said:
I would type in things like, “How to play beginner songs on guitar”. I taught myself these chords and slowly started to get the hang. I was obsessed with it. Every day I’d play and think, I’m not good enough yet; I need to get better. Then I’d play for hours and hours.
His obsession with watching YouTube covers is what led him to post his own across social media. He became determined to pursue it, and also started taking vocal lessons.
Señorita
Released last June, “Señorita” became the first No. 1 hit for Mendes and the second for Cabello (after “Havana” in 2018). The pair’s previous collaboration, 2015’s “I Know What You Did Last Summer” peaked at No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and its video has only been viewed 346 million times. The video for “Señorita” on the other hand, topped 1 billion views on YouTube after only 10 months.
The Canadian artist with the record for the fastest rise to 1 billion on YouTube is Justin Bieber, whose 2015 “Sorry” video did it in 136 days. It currently has nearly 3.3 billion views.
